1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus including an optical viewfinder and a half mirror.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a user or photographer performs moving image shooting while looking through an optical viewfinder, light flux incident from an imaging lens needs to be divided into the light flux directed towards the optical viewfinder and the light flux directed towards the imaging surface. In a single-lens reflex digital camera, the structure is generally configured such that a half mirror performs optical path division/splitting to thereby direct light transmitted through the half mirror towards the imaging surface. However, in this case, optical aberration occurs on the photographing plane due to the transmission of light through the half mirror, and degradation of image quality is a concern. On the other hand, the occurrence of aberration is suppressed for the light flux reflected from the half mirror. By utilizing this phenomenon, a camera having a structure in which light reflected from the half mirror is directed towards the imaging surface has been proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-329852. In addition, a method for optically correcting aberration by changing the thickness of the half mirror depending on the image height has also been proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-159807. A structure in which the effect of aberration is drastically reduced by using a thin film material such as a pellicle or the like as a half mirror or a structure in which the occurrence of aberration is also suppressed in a beam splitter having a reflection surface formed on a prism have been proposed.
In addition, as an example of the restoration of a degraded image (for example, blurred images or out-of-focused images), Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-20691 discloses an image processing apparatus that generates a degradation function based on the property information of the imaging apparatus and the like to thereby generate a restored image by the image subjected to reconversion based on the degradation function.